Thermally driven membrane phase transitions enable content reshuffling in primitive cells
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Self-assembling single-chain amphiphiles available in the prebiotic environment likely played a fundamental role in the advent of primitive cell cycles. However, the instability of prebiotic fatty acid-based membranes to temperature and pH seems to suggest that primitive cells could only host prebiotically relevant processes in a narrow range of nonfluctuating environmental conditions. Here we propose that membrane phase transitions, driven by environmental fluctuations, enabled the generation of daughter protocells with reshuffled content. A reversible membrane-to-oil phase transition accounts for the dissolution of fatty acid-based vesicles at high temperatures and the concomitant release of protocellular content. At low temperatures, fatty acid bilayers reassemble and encapsulate reshuffled material in a new cohort of protocells. Notably, we find that our disassembly/reassembly cycle drives the emergence of functional RNA-containing primitive cells from parent nonfunctional compartments. Thus, by exploiting the intrinsic instability of prebiotic fatty acid vesicles, our results point at an environmentally driven tunable prebiotic process, which supports the release and reshuffling of oligonucleotides and membrane components, potentially leading to a new generation of protocells with superior traits. In the absence of protocellular transport machinery, the environmentally driven disassembly/assembly cycle proposed herein would have plausibly supported protocellular content reshuffling transmitted to primitive cell progeny, hinting at a potential mechanism important to initiate Darwinian evolution of early life forms.
Date Issued
2021-10-13
Date Acceptance
2021-10-01
Citation
Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2021, 143 (40), pp.16589-16598
ISSN
0002-7863
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Start Page
16589
End Page
16598
Journal / Book Title
Journal of the American Chemical Society
Volume
143
Issue
40
Copyright Statement
© 2021 MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Published by American Chemical Society. This work is published under CC BY 4.0 International license.
License URL
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
The Royal Society
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000709467900033&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
851667
UF160152
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Chemistry
VESICLES
RNA
OLIGONUCLEOTIDES
TEMPERATURE
SELECTION
PROTEIN
GROWTH
WATER
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-10-01